Breathing
by Silent Game
Summary: Misty worries that she will not always be there to pull Ash out of trouble. Ash dissagrees. AML of course. Sequel of sorts to Drowning.


Disclaimer: _Sigh_, still don't own Pokemon, sorry. I'm working on it, though… Well, no, actually I'm not, but that's not really the point, is it? Speaking of points, what is it? I really haven't been able to figure that out, either…

_**Breathing**_

It had been a close call this time, Misty thought, closer than many. She pulled her blanket tighter around her shoulders and then sat down on the couch beside Ash, cup of hot tea clutched in both hands. Ash hunched lower in his seat, weather because he was embarrassed, ashamed, or still feeling somewhat queasy from the amount of sea water he had swallowed, or some combination of all three, Misty couldn't tell. She scooted a little closer to him and was glad when he either didn't notice or pretended not to. He had scared her this time.

It wasn't as if this was the first time something like this had happened, and it wasn't as if it was ever really his fault, as he had told her many times before. That didn't make it hurt any less. It didn't take away the paralyzing fear that descended on her when she saw his head disappear beneath the water and not come back up, didn't slow the frantic pounding of her heart as she dove in after him once she had been able to make her legs work again.

It certainly didn't stop the tears running down her cheeks as she pulled him, limp, onto the beach and bent over him, her mouth pressed on his, her entire world narrowed to the air in her lungs and in his --

_Oh, breathe, Ash. Please breathe…_--

until his body shuddered and he rolled over, coughing and gasping for air. Misty didn't think anything could ever make that any easier.

Lecturing him wouldn't help. She was still to relieved to be angry at him right now, anyway. And even if she could muster the energy to yell at him, he would just look at her with those sweet, brown eyes and say-

"I didn't do it on _purpose_, you know."

Misty jumped a little, startled by Ash's unexpected intrusion on her mental dialogue. He sounded thoroughly unhappy about something, understandable considering that he had nearly drowned not so long ago, but somehow she didn't think that was what was bothering him. It never had before, at least not that he'd shown.

She glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. He sat hunched beside her, holding his own blanket around himself with one hand, his neglected cup of tea with the other. His hair, still wet, looked even blacker than usual, and dripped water onto his forehead and nose. She thought he looked particularly vulnerable right now, younger, more like he had when they had first started their journey.

"I didn't do it on purpose," he said again.

Misty sighed. "I know you didn't. You never do."

He shifted and the blanket slipped down off of one of his shoulders. He sat his cup on the table before them in order to readjust it. "Are you mad at me?"

Misty hesitated only a moment before shaking her head. "No, not mad. Not really."

Ash let out what sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief, and Misty was almost certain she wasn't imagining it when she thought she felt him scooting closer to her as well.

Misty took a sip of her tea, not quite sure what to say next and not quite sure if she minded the silence or not. 'Just don't do that to me again,' she thought of saying, but it was a silly, pointless thing to say. As Ash said, he never did things like this on purpose, and it wasn't even always a result of his doing something stupid or careless. Ash and trouble just went together, and that was how it had been for as long as Misty had known him. She would be quite surprised if things changed now. They had had their life-threatening situation for the week, but something else would happen again soon, and Ash would just have to go and be a hero about it, and Misty would have to hope she could pull him out.

_Breathe, Ash…_

She could feel him watching her, knew he wanted her to say something. Misty stayed silent, trying to think of something she could say that wouldn't be asking him to make a promise he could never keep. If she didn't speak, he would break the silence soon.

"Misty…" Sure enough, his gentle prompt came after only a few moments.

She bowed her head, refused to look at him wet and clothed in only a borrowed blanket. "I was so scared," she finally said.

When Ash didn't respond, she wondered if she shouldn't have said anything after all. Then she felt his shoulder brush up against hers. "I wasn't," he said, and she glanced up at him in surprise. He was staring at his lap, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Ash-"

"I wasn't scared because I knew you'd pull me out."

"But what if I couldn't?"

"You always do."

She glared at him. "But someday I might not be able to. What then? If I wasn't there, or didn't get there in time, or I just _couldn't_- I don't want that, ever, but if-" The tears she felt in her eyes didn't really surprise her. Ash's fingers touching under her chin gently easing her face upwards did, even more than his shoulder against hers had.

"Please don't cry, Mist."

Misty shook her head and tried not to, but it didn't do much good, and Ash's hesitant touch and fond nickname only made the tears want to come more.

"Awe, Mist," he kept his hand on her face, "You saved me this time, right? So everything's okay, right?"

She nodded, then shook her head, then leaned in closer to him. "But what about next time?"

"Why does there have to be a next time?"

"Because you're Ash. There always is." She wasn't quite sure which of them had moved her head down to rest on his shoulder, but she didn't mind in the least.

"What if I promised to only go swimming when you're right there? Would that help?"

She knew he was teasing her, but she was feeling a bit drowsy and couldn't be bothered with being annoyed with him. "Mmm, a little, but what about all the times you're not meaning to go swimming at all but end up in the water anyway?"

"Well, since you always follow me around everywhere, all the time, I don't really see what difference it makes."

She should smack him for that, Misty thought, she really should. But he was so comfortable to lean against, she had never noticed how comfortable before, and smacking him would take so much effort. So "I suppose I'll just keep doing that, then," was all she said as she let her eyes drift close. It was so warm and nice, pushed up against him like this.

She felt the weight of his head as it came to rest on top of hers. "So you'll stay with me forever?" he whispered into her still damp hair.

"Mmm hmm," she responded sleepily, not quite registering the exact words, but knowing that she agreed with them, anyway.

"Good," he murmured, and then, so softly that she didn't hear it but only felt it as a brush of air against her scalp, "Thank you." And somehow, she knew that he had closed his eyes as well.

Misty let herself relax further against him. For now, he was safe. This time, she had pulled him out in time. Next time would come, maybe, but dreading it now would not help then. For now, Ash was warm and solid beside her, if still a little wet. For now, they were together and out of danger, and, for now, that was enough.

The last thing Misty was aware of before she drifted fully off to sleep was the steady rise and fall of Ash's chest beneath her cheek and the gentle puff of air by her ear that accompanied it, and then she let herself be lulled into gentle dreams by his breath.

Notes: Well, hello again. I have another one-shot here. I suppose you could consider it a sort of sequel/companion to "Drowning," but you really don't need to read either one to understand the other (although I really wouldn't mind if you did). Let's see, the next chapter of SoT is underway, but knowing the speed at which I usually update, that doesn't really say much about when chapter seven will actually be finished. I need to come up with a way for Ash to check in to the Pokemon Center without Nurse Joy noticing something odd about his name, or at least without Ash and Co. noticing that she notices something odd… Anyway, back to the story at hand; it was written late at night and on the spur of the moment, but please do drop a review anyway and let me know what you think. :)

On another note, I just noticed the way the little adds at the bottom of stories (sometimes) try to go along with the story. The ones below Drowning advertise Pokemon stuff and hair-care products. The ones at the bottom of some of the chapters of SoT advertise Harry Potter stuff and "Ash Vacuums" for your fireplace, so I guess they don't always get it right. ;)


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